Beast of a Burden
by Aeternus.Flamma
Summary: After his father's death, Sesshoumaru inherits the title of CEO of Taisho Industries. Unfortunately, it comes at the worst time. After the financial crises in the western divisions of their global business, Sesshoumaru finds that the Industry is stretched too thin and may dissolve at any point. As the stress begins to take its toll on him, he befriends a young woman to confide in.
1. Chapter 1

_Beast of a Burden_

 _Rated: T_

 _Summary: A short while after his father's death, Sesshoumaru inherits the title of CEO of Taisho Industries. Unfortunately, it comes at the worst time. After the financial crises in the western divisions of their global business, Sesshoumaru finds that the Industry is stretched too thin and may dissolve at any point. As the stress begins to take its toll on him, he befriends a young woman to confide in._

000

There were days when he felt like buying up a private island north of the country and staying there for the rest of the life. He could sell off his ownership and live in comfortable seclusion. No more late night phone calls with the London branch, no more tedious meetings with board members left over from his father's days, no more endless streams of women paraded around him by his mother… Life could be simple. Life could be easy.

But easy wasn't his way—it wasn't his family's way. He was a third-generation Taisho and he had a duty to do. Even if he was willing for sake his mother and his brother (he was,) half of the city and almost a eighth of the country relied on his company and its subsidiaries for work. It could _not_ go under.

Unfortunately, that was currently weighing heavily on his mind.

Sesshoumaru sighed as idly spun his almost empty coffee cup on his thigh. A spot of the brown liquid had dripped down the side and landed on his grey suit pants. On an average day, he would have been annoyed—today, it was like a blaring signal of all of the things going wrong in his life. All he could think about was the fact that his pants likely cost a month's salary for someone like the woman tossing a ball back and forth with two kids down the hill from him.

Maybe it was a salary she had because worked for his real estate company or wealth management agency. Maybe not. If she did however, he couldn't help but wonder if she would have that salary at the end of the year.

As a light breeze blew through his tied-back white hair, he stretched his arms out on either side of the bench back and rolled his head from side to side.

The Taisho Empire was stretched too thin. The financial crisis in the western half of the world had hit his international enterprises _hard_. If he had the option, he would sell off some of those divisions. Unfortunately, the only buyer he had was his number one competitor. He could hope that his competitor was merely over confident in his abilities, but Sesshoumaru doubted that. Naraku played the long game. He was content to wait out the eight years it would likely take for the markets to recover and then surpass Tashio Enterprises.

So, he either waited it out and risked sending multiple divisions into bankruptcy or he just fucking did it—he got rid of them and admitted that the company had made a bad decision all those years ago.

He felt his phone vibrating in his pocket for the third time, and yet, he still ignored it. He knew it was his secretary wondering where he was. He had already missed another conference call. Sesshoumaru put his head back and gazed at the passing clouds, debating on whether or not he wanted to skip another one.

When he felt something hit his leg, he was roused from his thoughts.

The ball that the trio had been tossing around bounced off of his calf and rolled a bit away, though not far enough to tumble back down the hill. A short little boy with copper hair stomped up and snatched up the ball. He turned to walk away without even apologizing.

"Hit me again, and I'll pop it," Sesshoumaru said and gave the child a cool look. Instead of frightening the boy, however, the kid sneered.

"Geeze, sorry, it was an accident," the kid said ran back down the slope to his friends.

Sesshoumaru hummed to himself. He must have been losing his touch.

His phone buzzed again and this time, he reluctantly answered it.

"Taisho."

" _Master Taisho, London refuses to reschedule. They insist that they will keep calling until you answer,"_ said his secretary from the other end of the phone. She sounded as tired as he felt.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes. If they want to wait, they can wait."

" _Yes, Master Taishio, I will relay the message._ "

Sesshoumaru hung up and stood, tossing his coffee cup into a nearby trash. Though everyone ranted and raved about it, the overpriced drink from the shop down the street wasn't as good as the stuff that Kagura brewed for him. Perhaps she simply understood his tastes better—she had said on multiple occasions that he and his father enjoyed their coffee the exact same way.

Kagura… she was one employee he would fight to keep if worse came to worse. She had served his father for the last few years of his life, and though she wouldn't admit it, Sesshoumaru was fairly confident that she was the one making major corporate decisions while his father was ailing. Those decisions had been good ones—ones that likely kept a lot of greedy investors from sticking their fingers into the Taisho family pie.

She had been a good worker for him as well. She never argued about his late nights and she was rather good at keeping her personal life out of the office. His last secretary, which he had while working as head of investment, was an older woman who _loved_ to gossip. He would have fired her if he could have, but his father had a list of untouchable, long time employees and she was one of them.

And so, he appreciated Kagura even if he didn't tell her.

She did need to work on getting his lunch order right, however. If she ordered him tuna salad one more time, he swore he was going to throw it at her.

Sesshoumaru glanced down at the trio at the end of the hill as he turned to start heading back to his office. The dark-haired woman supervising the younger boys held up the ball, pointed at it, and gave him a wave. He wasn't sure if it was supposed to be some sort of acknowledgement or apology, so he simply ignored it.

Because it was mid afternoon, the entrance of his large, glass office building was rather empty. Regardless, the few who were inside made sure to step to the side as he walked by. The elevator that had already started to fill was even emptied as he approached so that he could ride to his upper level office on his own. It had taken only a week before the office employees realized that Sesshoumaru was not as friendly or welcoming as his father, and that he was best left alone unless absolutely necessary.

When he reached his floor, the doors opened with a _ding_ and he stepped out into the mostly quiet space.

There was only actual office on the floor, and that was his own. It was large and spacious with sleek, modern furnishings. When he arrived, there had been a large, hand carved wooden desk in his office—which he immediately demanded removed. He didn't care much for useless things and a desk which appeared to be more decorative than functional was just that. As far as he knew, it was sitting up in storage.

His half brother had insisted that he wanted their father's desk if Sesshoumaru wasn't going to use it. Sesshoumaru agreed that he could have it—so long as he paid for it to be carefully wrapped and transported to his own office. Inuyasha, however, proved once again that he was all talk and no action—he was lazy.

But, then again, that was why he was in real estate. Inuyasha may not have always been the most personable of people, but he was damned good at striking a deal and handling greasy land lords. He was made head of his division simply because it was his birthright. Honestly, his co-worker, Miroku—or something like that at least, would have been more suitable. His sales and acquisition rates were phenomenal. The number of harassment complaints against him, not so much. There had never been something serious enough to warrant firing him, but his bonuses had certainly suffered in the past few years.

"Master Taisho," Kagura said to him from her desk just outside of his office, giving him a small-bow, "I have one thing to tell you before you answer that call—"

"What is it?" He asked, pressing his mouth into a thin line.

The red-eyed woman looked at him somewhat apologetically and adjusted her glasses. "The 'London' that's on the phone isn't the 'London' from your first missed call."

He gave her a nod of understanding and hid his annoyance. He knew what the call was about, and it wasn't going to go well.

Shutting his door behind him, Sesshoumaru walked to his desk and pulled off his suit jacket, tossing it on one of the two spare chairs opposite of his own. He didn't bother sitting down, as he knew that the call would only frustrate him and make him want to pace. So, he stood, one hand in his pocket as he overlooked the city and the other reaching for the phone on his desk.

He swore she must have heard him breath before he even had a chance to say a word. Without any hesitation, the voice on the other end of the phone started shouting at him.

" _What is the meaning of this?! I have to find out through the mail that my lease isn't being renewed?"_

"Do not blame me for your lack of listening skills. I told you when you were here last—"

" _Do you know how mortifying this is? The building's relator called my assistant to set up a time to bring possible new tenants in! I wanted to hide myself in shame! What will everyone say? That the business is doing so poorly that we can't even pay for one flat—"_

Sesshoumaru wanted to growl, but he knew that it would only irritate her further. "It's a two-million dollar flat, Mother. It is an unnecessary expense. I am not going to allow Father's estate to run dry in just a few short years because you insist on leasing numerous, multi-million dollar locations for your own convenience. You should feel lucky I'm letting you keep your Paris and New York places. I haven't made up my mind on Dubai as of yet."

There was more shouting from the other end of the phone, most of which was unintelligible as Sesshoumaru held the receiver away from his ear. He waited until she calmed down before listening again.

" _Soon you're going to make me go back to Japan! Is that what you want? Do you want me to come live with you? I can make your life miserable—"_

Sesshoumaru was very nearly ready to retort that she already _did_ make his life miserable, but he kept it to himself. No need to instigate her further.

After a few moments, the angry woman seemed to calm down enough to have a somewhat civil conversation, if barely. She complained a bit more about losing her lease and then moved on to tell him about a gala she attended. Of course, in typical fashion, his mother also felt the need to name drop a few nice, wealthy, eligible bachelorettes whose families had considerable pull in the United Kingdom.

" _Her name is Elizabeth and she's a bit older than I would like—she's twenty eight—but you're not young yourself anymore. Your father was married at twenty six you know, and I was barely twenty—"_

"—and we see how terribly well _that_ worked out," Sesshoumaru replied, causing his mother to huff on the other end of the line.

" _Our ages at marrying had nothing to do with our divorce! It was that slutty little—"_

"I have another appointment, mother, I am going to hang up."

Though Sesshoumaru had no love for his step mother, he knew that _slutty_ was not a term that described her. His mother had always been a vindictive bitch and that had very well contributed to his mother and father's marriage falling apart. Besides, this was how the bulk of their conversations devolved these days: his mother complaining about his father and their marriage, and then balking at the fact that he was nearly thirty four and unwed.

" _Fine,_ " his mother spat, " _but I swear, if you cancel my Dubai lease, I'm going to come move into your own flat and make you suffer for at least a full month!"_

And then there was a click. Sesshoumaru let out a tired groan before dropping the phone back onto the receiver. A few moments later, he could hear his glass door open as the stopper slid across the carpet.

"Master Taisho, Mister Onigumo has sent over another offer. He's… dropped his bid. Would you care to look at the paperwork?" Kagura asked from the entrance to his office.

"Leave it on my desk," he said and slid his now free hand into his pocket. It was such a beautiful day out and the world was enjoying it while he was stuck in his cold, grey and white office, trying to figure out how to keep that same world spinning.

Sometimes, it was hard being him.

000

 _Author's Note: So… I started this on a pure whim because I was having a hard time finding Sesshoumaru/Kagome fics that I was enjoying. And thus, on a slow, boring Saturday night, I decided to see if I could sit down and write a chapter. I have some ideas for where this will go, but I'm sure it will evolve._

 _Some background: I have a business degree and I work in the finance sector. I have a grasp on economy and, primarily, investments. I hope to make this story as believable as possible in that aspect. Additionally, as anyone who has read pretty much any of my recent works can verify, when I write romance, it is_ _ **slow burn**_ **.** _Do not expect romance to blossom in, like, the first ten chapters. Hell, it may not happen until literally the last chapter. That's just how I do things. I try very hard to let relationships develop naturally rather than throwing two characters together and saying, 'now kiss!'_

 _So… thanks for reading! We'll see if I'm motivated enough to continue._

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


	2. Chapter 2

_Beast of a Burden_

 _Rated: T_

 _Summary: A short while after his father's death, Sesshoumaru inherits the title of CEO of Taisho Industries. Unfortunately, it comes at the worst time. After the financial crises in the western divisions of their global business, Sesshoumaru finds that the Industry is stretched too thin and may dissolve at any point. As the stress begins to take its toll on him, he befriends a young woman to confide in._

000

On top of trying to make the world go 'round, Sesshoumaru faced additional problems at home. He knew he had to take some of the blame since he was hardly around to monitor _that_ situation, but he paid people to handle it for him—people who apparently couldn't keep track of a fifteen year old girl.

Sesshoumaru sat at his kitchen table with only half of the kitchen lights on, reading over performance reports and trying not to eye the clock on the wall across from him. As each minute ticked on, he found it increasingly difficult to do so. As the clocked rolled over to read ten, he his annoyance started to peak and his skin started to crawl. Suddenly, all of the things that were wrong with his near-pristine flat started to glare at him.

There were bowls in the sink, a discarded cardigan thrown over one of the kitchen chairs, and dvd cases littering the coffee table in the living room immediately to his right. These were minor things to most people, but Sesshoumaru was rather particular about the way he had kept his things—which was one of the many reasons he had never permitted any relation of his to stay with him for more than a long weekend (he was notorious for even kicking the women he was seeing out after a three day rendezvous.) It had been quite an adjustment over the past few months as he permitted someone else to live in his space.

His head snapped towards the front door, which was just ahead of him down a long hallway, as he heard the lock click.

 _About damned time_ , he thought and steeped his fingers, already giving the door an icy look.

In walked his ward, rolling her eyes as she saw him. She locked up behind her and immediately turned to disappear down the hallway to her room.

"Shoes at the door," he said before the managed to get more than two steps away. He heard her _tsk_ loudly and then turn around to pull off her shoes and drop them on a nearby mat. "It's after ten. On a school night."

Giving in, the girl stepped forward towards him while remaining at the end of the hall. She put her hand on her hip and haphazardly let her head tilt while she pursed her lips. "So? I went out with friends. Things ran late."

"Stop ditching Jaken," Sesshoumaru said, immediately getting to the real matter at hand.

In an instant, the teenager's face changed into an angry sneer and she stomped her foot on the white tile. "I don't _need_ a freaking babysitter! It's so embarrassing! My friends don't want to do anything with me when we're constantly trailed by that annoying man! I had a life before, you know, I just want that back!" She balled her hand into a fist and punched the light grey wall, causing a framed picture to fall and crack.

Sesshoumaru opened his mouth to say something further, but she spun around and stormed away.

His eyes flickered towards the ceiling as he clenched his jaw, willing himself to remain calm. This was a rather typical fight, but he wasn't the one to have it in most cases. Truth be told, he hardly saw the girl, what with his work schedule and all.

Rin had entered his care when her parents died rather tragically. Her father, Kaneda Matsui, was a third party legal consultant for the Taisho group of businesses. Sesshoumaru had come to know him rather well over the years he worked as head of investments. In fact, it was his office party they were leaving when Kaneda and his wife, Risa, were in an accident. A semi-truck had hit their car—Risa died on impact but Kaneda lived for a few more days before his internal injuries overcame him. It had been just long enough for him to designate Sesshoumaru Rin's caretaker after Sesshoumaru had offered in a moment of emotional weakness.

It took some time to get the court's approval, and in that time, Sesshoumaru's decided that his decision was ultimately for the best. The Taisho's had their own investigators on hand to look into any matter discreetly, and the accident was one of them. The results determined that the crash had likely been intentional.

Someone was seen running from the semi-truck just after the accident, though the 'driver' couldn't recall a thing—he had been drunk. More likely, he had been drugged and left behind to take responsibility for the accident.

Would someone come after the girl? It didn't seem likely. What could she possibly know? Regardless, Sesshoumaru felt that it was in her best interest to be looked after at all times. She certainly didn't like it—that much she had made clear. However, she also didn't know the possible truth and of course saw no reason for alarm.

And so, Sesshoumaru placed one his most trusted members of his security team on 'babysitting' duty. Jaken was a short man who was rather good at not drawing attention to himself so long as he kept his mouth shut. He had a tendency to get flustered and making a scene. Regardless, Sesshoumaru did trust Jaken to do what was necessary if it ever came to it.

Of course, he couldn't _do that_ when Rin snuck out of school and left him behind.

He could need to do something, though he wasn't sure what, exactly, that was.

Sesshoumaru found himself once again sitting on his usual park bench with a bad coffee in hand as a handful of people started to filter in the park. School had just let out, and some people were enjoying the late-spring day while they could. He was starting to recognize some of the usual park goers by this point and he couldn't help but wonder if some of the older individuals even _had_ jobs.

Take the trio in front of him for example—he had noticed them repeatedly showing up to the park, sometimes earlier when school had a half day or sometimes later, like today, just after the bell rang. It was the copper-haired boy who had thrown his ball at Sesshoumaru about two weeks earlier, a dark haired teenage boy, and a young woman, also with dark hair. The copper haired boy was the youngest of the group, likely a bit younger than Rin. The other boy looked as though he was probably in his last few years of school—and, if Sesshoumaru were to take a wild guess, he would say that the older boy was related to the young woman. She may have been older, but they certainly shared some features.

He noticed that she eyed him from time to time, especially when they were tossing a ball that might cross his direction. Perhaps the boy had told her about his threat, causing her to be a bit more cautions while they played.

Today, he chose to meet her gaze when it was drawn his way. He was in no mood to deal with any brats in his space. He had been up late on a call with New York. While they sat around a conference table eating lunch, he was sitting in his dark office, after midnight, on his third espresso for the evening. The meeting had not gone well. Most of his western divisions were tech based industries which should have been holding steady, but revenue was continuously dropping.

In his opinion, his division managers were idiots who clearly thought that he would be easier to deal with than his father. They continuously talked circles with a tone of arrogance, never answering his questions and trying to steer the conversation elsewhere.

But oh did he handle them alright. He informed them that as part of the transition in power, he would be sending out independent auditors to look into the books and records of each plant and headquarters. All gifts and entertainment accounts would be frozen until the audits were complete. Sesshoumaru had a distinct feeling that he knew where his revenues were going, and they certainly weren't into _his_ pockets.

He turned and leaned towards his right to toss his cup away. As he leaned back, the ball that the other park goers were throwing hit his chest, leaving a slight green grass mark on his crisp white shirt. Sesshoumaru clenched his jaw and growled to himself before reaching down and picking up the ball.

With a glance down, he could see that the copper haired boy was frozen in place, staring up at him while the young woman started to walk towards the hill, eyes locked on Sesshoumaru. With a cool look back, he put the ball between his palms and pressed forward, popping it, just as he had promised to do. The woman gave him a look of disgust as he stood, dropped it into the trash can, and started to walk away.

He was so engrossed with his thoughts, wondering if Kagura could get the light mark out of his shirt, that he didn't notice that the woman was running up behind him. He heard the footsteps but assumed it was a jogger until she grabbed his arm and pulled.

Out of reflex, he thrust his arm out to shake his purser off. The woman stumbled backwards a bit but caught herself before she could fall.

"What the hell is your problem?" The woman snapped at him, throwing her arms out at her sides.

Sesshoumaru's eyes flicked up and down her before he hummed a bit. "My problem? You're the one assaulting me?"

"Assault-? You destroyed my property!" She shouted at him.

"That boy knew what would happen if he hit me with it again. That was the _second_ time he's been careless with his little toy."

The woman rolled her eyes. "It's a _park_ , things happen. If you don't want to risk getting hit, then you shouldn't sit in the same spot every day. You know we're there when it isn't raining. Shippou sometimes gets a little… overzealous when he gets worked up, that's all."

Sesshoumaru raised a brow at the woman. "Does he? Then perhaps this will teach him to control himself." He intended for his conversation to be over, and so he turned to walk away. Apparently, the woman had different ideas.

"Wait!" She shouted from behind him. He paused for only a moment but didn't glance behind him. "So, you're going to replace it, right?"

Sesshoumaru clenched his jaw again and slightly closed his eyes. He could feel a headache coming on. He slowly turned around once more, taking a two large, slow strides towards the woman. As he approached, she seemed to realize that he was almost six inches taller than her and towered over her. He could see her breath catch, though she continued to stand as tall as she could.

"Replace it?" He said lowly, perhaps a hint of dark humor hidden under the tone. "Do you intend to replace my shirt?" He picked at the discolored fabric, pulling it away from his skin and then letting it go again.

"I, um, well…"

"It's a three hundred dollar shirt, custom ordered from France. Now, ask me again if I will replace your silly toy." Sesshoumaru didn't make it a habit of taking his anger out on random women in parks, but he was running on very little sleep with a great deal of stress. Sometimes, it just felt good to have people quake before him. It was satisfying.

But this woman didn't quake. She held her tongue and pursed her lips—she even looked up at him to meet his gaze. He could see a fire behind her brown eyes that told him she had more to say, but she was wisely biting back her words. If looks could kill, he'd surely be bleeding.

Sesshoumaru hummed once more and continued to stare down at her, refusing to be the first one to back away. Finally, after what seemed like a tense eternity, there were voices approaching them.

"Kagome," said the copper-haired boy—perhaps it was the Shippou she had mentioned—as he ran up towards them. "C'mon Kagome. It's not worth it. I'm getting hungry anyhow."

"Yeah, me too," said the older boy, though he spoke with more caution, looking between Sesshoumaru and the young woman.

The young woman, Kagome, growled lowly in frustration as he shoulders slumped. She shook he head and stepped backwards before spinning around to stomp back towards the boys. "Alright fine," she said, though Sesshoumaru couldn't tell if it was directed at him or her companions. "Next time we'll bring a kite. Maybe we can crash it too," she said loudly, partially over her shoulder.

Sesshoumaru watched as the trio continued down the cement walkway and disappeared behind some trees. Though he couldn't say it was as satisfying as he had hoped, he certainly felt a bit better after being able to snap a bit.

As if on cue, he could feel his phone ringing as Kagura summoned him back to his office once more.

000

 _Author's Notes: Wow! I certainly hadn't expected such feedback right away! I had no idea that the Inuyasha fandom was still so active! A few notes:_

 _If Sesshoumaru seems slightly out of character, it's because he is. He is human in this after all, so I'm trying to write him as if he were human and not an emotionless demon. If Rin seems out of character, it's also because she is. I imagine that she wouldn't react as she would in the anime/manga if she was forcibly displaced as a teenager into Sesshoumaru's care. She lost her parents and as such, is a rebellions teenager. Currency—I do not know yen prices, so I will continue to use the dollar. I know it doesn't fit well, but please just go with it!_

 _Reviewers:_

 _ **Lady Deviance-**_ _thank you so much for being my first reviewer! I hope you will continue to stick with me as I update!_

 _ **Oceans Night—**_ _I'm glad you're so far enjoying the story! Thank you for reviewing!_

 _ **Lady Sesshomaru Sama 949**_ _– you liked it so much, you reviewed twice! Thank you! I appreciate your support!_

 _ **Hobo Ghost –**_ _your name makes me laugh and I love it! Thank you for taking the time to review!_

 _And thank you everyone who started to add to favorite/alerts! It was very encouraging!_

 _Ever Your Servant,_

 _A.F_


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